All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[Catlady in training]

RFK entering the election at all was like a bad SNL skit.

Then again, so was Trump at first.

Question is, is RFK more likely to take votes from Trump or Biden?

[GindyPosts]

This happened.

[hyped78]

Then again, so was Trump at first.

Question is, is RFK more likely to take votes from Trump or Biden?

Polls show that, theoretically, RFK Jr + West + Stein hurt Biden slightly more than they hurt Trump.

I saw a CNN poll somewhere that isolated RFK's voting and the effect was essentially 50/50 Trump-Biden - but, of course, this was at a national level and doesn't take into consideration the effect on swing states.

[zinderel]

Then again, so was Trump at first.

Question is, is RFK more likely to take votes from Trump or Biden?

True. I remember 2016 vividly. I remember going to bed early, confident that there was no way he could get elected. And waking up to my roommate crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, and we just stood in her kitchen, in shock. It was unreal.

I don’t THINK the brain bugs have spread far enough to give RFK the win. I think he might pull some anti-vaxx neo-pagan pseudo-hippie ‘crystal vibrations and essential oils cure autism’ leftists away from Biden, but mainly, I honestly see him pulling more from Trump, this time around. Cornell West will pull from Biden’s voter pool, though…is he still running…?

[hyped78]

True. I remember 2016 vividly. I remember going to bed early, confident that there was no way he could get elected. And waking up to my roommate crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, and we just stood in her kitchen, in shock. It was unreal.

I don’t THINK the brain bugs have spread far enough to give RFK the win. I think he might pull some anti-vaxx neo-pagan pseudo-hippie ‘crystal vibrations and essential oils cure autism’ leftists away from Biden, but mainly, I honestly see him pulling more from Trump, this time around. Cornell West will pull from Biden’s voter pool, though…is he still running…?

There's Jill Stein too

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The really strange thing is how he gets more votes than just his + his wife's. Polling at an aggregated ~10%:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...2024/national/

10%, think about it! 10% in many European Countries is a junior coalition government. How can this wacko poll at 10%?

Easy, his last name is KENNEDY. That's all it takes. There's a lot of misinformed people out there who believe RFK Jr. is just as principled a man as his father and uncle when he's the polar opposite, a total loon and whackjob his family turned it's collective back on. But yeah, he's bound to steal votes from either Biden or Trump.

[hyped78]

Easy, his last name is KENNEDY. That's all it takes. There's a lot of misinformed people out there who believe RFK Jr. is just as principled a man as his father and uncle when he's the polar opposite, a total loon and whackjob his family turned it's collective back on. But yeah, he's bound to steal votes from either Biden or Trump.

Ok, some months ago I can understand the blind name recognition - but still now, after 'everyone' knows about the anti-vaxx crap etc.?

[zinderel]

A little bit of schadenfreude I just saw:

Watch Brain Geniuses Get Arrested For Refusing To Answer 'Are You A Citizen' At U.S. Border

[Dalak]

If only there was a function on this forum that allows people to not have to see posts of those they have a personal problem with. Then maybe the rest of us would not have to scroll through a lot of nonsense to get to posts that actually discuss news and politics instead of each other.

Sadly that function is not supposed to be discussed regarding those one is using it on, nor does it stop the posts being seen when others reply, stop showing the posts as placeholders, nor does it stop those you'd rather not interact with from replying to you or PMing you. Even if it solved those problems there'd probably still be ways around it, but it's what we've got however imperfect. There's no way possible to make anyone respect the wishes of others if they refuse to.

And you've chosen to continuously comment on this even though the discussion wasn't directed at you, and continue to do so (note: you are obviously entitled and free to comment on whatever and all posts you see fit here, that goes without saying)

"Your bias is your bias" - I'm talking about the other poster, not you (the sentence includes "the poster..."). "Your" as a person, not "Your" as Dalak.

It looks like it took you a bit to realize you hadn't actually refuted that you called me racist, but that's besides the point. When you jump to attack others so often it should be easy to see why I'd assume you were calling me a racist there. Using One, Their, or They helps to avoid this sort of thing, and as one who chooses not to identify oneself that would seem to be the way to go all the time to avoid confusion. Unless you just like doing it so you can respond to people who misunderstand you.

As for commenting I comment on many things, and you also often reply to my posts which don't reference you as I started discussing this with JackDaw. It makes it kind of strange when one actually directed at you doesn't get a reply though. No one can force you to answer, but it seems like when you demand something of others you should be willing to do the same yourself.

I've never thought I would reconsider my opinion that Trump is the most lunatic person to run for a US president.

RFK Jr says he’ll eat brain worms and ‘still beat’ Biden and Trump in debate

One candidate wants to eat worms to prove a point, one candidate faces more criminal charges than every president combined, but Biden is old, occasionally misremembers names and hasn't solved a decades-old conflict, so I don't know, must be tough to decide. /s

"Hit Rock Bottom, Still Digging" no wonder the worm in his brain died!

RFK entering the election at all was like a bad SNL skit. That it actually happened, and is still happening…? And that he’s blithely talking about BRAIN WORMS…?!

There was a show several years ago, BRAIN DEAD, about alien insects that parasitize politicians and talking heads in an effort to sow chaos while the alien ants take over. Had Tony Shalhoub and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and poked fun at the hyper-partisan politics of the time in an over the top way. It lasted a single season, was ridiculous, and was forgotten.

But then…”RFK brain worms” is the headline!

Looking at that, and Trump, and Fox News, and…I couldn’t help but remember it.

It’s starting to feel, in the same way that Idiocracy does, more like a documentary than the satire it was intended to be…

THAT'S the show, I couldn't remember the name but I brought it up earlier. Thanks!

This happened.

Better a corpse than a Democrat!

True. I remember 2016 vividly. I remember going to bed early, confident that there was no way he could get elected. And waking up to my roommate crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, and we just stood in her kitchen, in shock. It was unreal.

I don’t THINK the brain bugs have spread far enough to give RFK the win. I think he might pull some anti-vaxx neo-pagan pseudo-hippie ‘crystal vibrations and essential oils cure autism’ leftists away from Biden, but mainly, I honestly see him pulling more from Trump, this time around. Cornell West will pull from Biden’s voter pool, though…is he still running…?

I sat up and had the floor fall out from under me slowly as I watched things shake out and the numbers shifting in disbelief. That's part of why I don't have as much respect for the American voting populace, that and the childish response afterwards by those who sat out and let things happen as they did.

[hyped78]

It looks like it took you a bit to realize you hadn't actually refuted that you called me racist, but that's besides the point. When you jump to attack others so often it should be easy to see why I'd assume you were calling me a racist there. Using One, Their, or They helps to avoid this sort of thing, and as one who chooses not to identify oneself that would seem to be the way to go all the time to avoid confusion. Unless you just like doing it so you can respond to people who misunderstand you.

As for commenting I comment on many things, and you also often reply to my posts which don't reference you as I started discussing this with JackDaw. It makes it kind of strange when one actually directed at you doesn't get a reply though. No one can force you to answer, but it seems like when you demand something of others you should be willing to do the same yourself.

"No one can force you to answer, but it seems like when you demand something of others you should be willing to do the same yourself"
Everyone can reply to posts or not reply to posts. I don't demand anything, everyone is free to do as they wish as long as they are civil. I'm not demanding anything of others - if someone doesn't want to reply to my post(s) that's absolutely fine, no one is forced to do anything and I'm not demanding anything.

"When you jump to attack others so often" - funny that I have the same image of you, towards me and a few other posters. If I read a post that I dislike, I comment. Simple.

"Using One, Their, or They helps to avoid this sort of thing" - as I've mentioned several times, English is my 3rd language. I've hopefully now clarified that the 'bias' comment wasn't intended for you. Plus, if you were unsure, you could have asked for clarification instead of jumping to conclusions (I note that it's not the first time that you jump to wrong conclusions, I remember when I said "There's crazy people everywhere" and you literally took a giant - and wrong - interpretation leap that I was saying that "In all MMA gyms, there are police officers who brag about beating up protestors" - I think you remember this)


Regarding your post #5620, I don't think I saw it. I can reply now:

"Attacking while in the midst of cease-fire negotiations shows that one isn't serious about them and is ignoring it as any real option, it's as simple as that." - Hamas and its allies have also attacked Israel during ceasefire negotiations, both now and in previous rounds - this has happened multiple times now. It seems a bit strange to only request that standard from one side when it's obvious that it's a free for all from both sides. Plus these are long, drawn out, negotiations - if there was a ceasefire during ceasefire negotiations then, well, there's already a ceasefire.

"Considering the whole "Move to the corner and we won't kill you" option which I called out from the beginning as useless" - useless depends on your POV, Hamas' capabilities to inflict harm seem to have been severely deteriorated. Wasn't that the objective of the invasion?

"Nor would it be a good excuse to continue bombing the areas you specifically told the civilians to retreat to before you bombed the shit out of everything else, as they literally don't have anywhere else to go." - this I agree with but what is the alternative?

"And how would you convince greedy bloodthirsty terrorists to surrender to the people they hate the most to be executed?" - you don't, that's exactly my point. Because they will NEVER surrender, then they must be eliminated (or "forced to surrender"), hence the predicament.

"Which group of people killing them for years now should Palestinian Civilians trust to stop killing them?" - there is distrust from both sides. Israeli civilians have also been killed by Palestinians in intifadas incl. suicide bombings over the years. That Israel is factually able to kill more speaks to its vast military superiority, but it's clear that if Hamas could wipe Israel off the map, they would've done it already. The same can be said about Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad and others.
There's actually quite a few Palestinians who criticize Hamas but channels like Al-Jazeera choose not to air stuff like that.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/16/o...med/index.html

"The answers to these questions are important, as much as realizing that retribution/revenge is making everything worse on BOTH sides of this conflict." - I don't disagree. I don't have other solutions/suggestions besides the points I outlined earlier. How do you suggest the situation should be solved?

[zinderel]

Glad I could help, Dalek! My brain is a bit odd. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I can remember a weird old sci-fi horror satire from almost ten years ago, clearly. Lol.

Meanwhile, thank goodness someone is finally speaking up for white people: Trump vows to fight 'anti-white feeling' in the United States. His allies have a plan

And we all know about the racism and plans for mass incarceration of political opponents and inconvenient people, the ground work for religious theocracy, and other horrors in the Republican-embraced Project 2025, but did you know about the sanctioned mass killings these reasonable, patriotic, law-and-order, common sense, family values, pro-life ‘christians’ have in store for the country?

There's A GOP Plan For An Execution Spree If Trump Wins The White House

“Who would Jesus execute, en masse?”

Catchy. We should make a bracelet…

[ed2962]

True. I remember 2016 vividly. I remember going to bed early, confident that there was no way he could get elected. And waking up to my roommate crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, and we just stood in her kitchen, in shock. It was unreal.

I don’t THINK the brain bugs have spread far enough to give RFK the win. I think he might pull some anti-vaxx neo-pagan pseudo-hippie ‘crystal vibrations and essential oils cure autism’ leftists away from Biden, but mainly, I honestly see him pulling more from Trump, this time around. Cornell West will pull from Biden’s voter pool, though…is he still running…?

In theory, yes. But I don't think he's truly a serious candidate. He's jumped back and forth between at least three different parties and I'm not sure if he's ever laid out an actual platform. I think he's really just running so he can get on camera and pontificate on various issues.

[Jack Dracula]

"What needs to happen is for the moderate Republicans to organize and create a strong presence within the party" - or for the Democrats to try to entice enough moderate Republican voters, at least for the time being - because I don't think what you describe is going to happen anytime soon.

After 2020, I thought the GOP would move more to the center. After Jan. 6th I though the GOP would move more to the center. After the Midterms I thought the GOP would move more to the center.

Not only has that not happened but, on top of that, more moderate voices like Liz Cheney (and she's not "moderate moderate" policy wise, but you know what I mean) has been essentially shut down by the GOP.

The GOP renounced the two impeachment opportunities the Democrats gave them. The second immediately after Jan 6 was a golden opportunity to rid themselves of the MAGA element within their ranks and preserve the democratic process, but they still chose to profit politically from the situation and chose to take a pass. I think history won’t be kind to McConnell for that decision.

[Tuck]

The GOP renounced the two impeachment opportunities the Democrats gave them. The second immediately after Jan 6 was a golden opportunity to rid themselves of the MAGA element within their ranks and preserve the democratic process, but they still chose to profit politically from the situation and chose to take a pass. I think history won’t be kind to McConnell for that decision.

They're afraid of being primaried. If more states had open primaries, the threat would be diminished. I don't know how much. But enough for some members of Congress to turn on the MAGA crowd.

[hyped78]

The GOP renounced the two impeachment opportunities the Democrats gave them. The second immediately after Jan 6 was a golden opportunity to rid themselves of the MAGA element within their ranks and preserve the democratic process, but they still chose to profit politically from the situation and chose to take a pass. I think history won’t be kind to McConnell for that decision.

True. Another thing to bear in mind is that I mentioned 'MAGA' but MAGA is just a name/brand. Before that there was the Tea Party and in the future it might be called something else.

I don't know how moderate Republicans (who are currently clearly a minority within their own ranks) can influence and seize control of the party - the only trigger I can see for that is continuous electoral failure (this is why I mentioned 'winning elections' to aja_christopher). Electoral failure triggers change and, if sustained over a long period, it can bring about seismic change.

On the short-term, the end of Donald Trump only happens if he loses the election, that's why I said that's the immediate priority and that that includes getting the vote out. Right now, there is a chance that Trump can win the election in November (I don't know if it's 50/50 or whatever but there's a clear chance) - as long as he/them are electorally successful, e.g. if they win POTUS, there is no incentive to change from within.

Even the Midterms, which weren't the Red Wave they were hoping for, gave them control of the House - electoral success like that just further emboldens who's at the helm and makes internal opposition less likely/viable.